There are but three things that I would like to say concerning Judas as
I come to the end of my message.
The first is that he was heartless in the extreme. It was just after a
touching scene recorded in Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the seventh
to the thirteenth verses, "There came unto him a woman having an
alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as
he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation,
saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it,
he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a
good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye
have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body,
she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this
gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this,
that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." It was
after this that Judas went to the enemies of Jesus and offered to sell
him, and as if that were not enough, it was just after he had left
Gethsemane, in Matthew the twenty-sixth chapter the forty-fifth to the
forty-ninth verses, that he betrayed him with his kiss. "Then cometh
he to his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your
rest; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand
that doth betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the
twelve, came, and with him a great multitude, with swords and staves,
from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed
him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he:
hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master;
and kissed him." The blood drops had just been rolling down the cheeks
of the Master, for he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood; and I
can quite understand how upon the very lips of Judas the condemning
blood may have left its mark. But do not condemn him; he is scarcely
more heartless than the man who to-day rejects him after all his
gracious ministry, his sacrificial death and his mediatorial work of
nineteen hundred years.
Second: His death was awful. Acts 1:18, "Now this man purchased a
field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." I can imagine
him going out to the place where he is to end it all, remembering as he
walked how Jesus had looked at him, recalling, doubtless, some of his
spoken messages, and certainly remembering how once he had been with
him in all his unfaithful ministry. All this must have swept before
him like a great panorama, and with the vision of his betrayed Master
still before him he swings himself out into the eternity; and then as
if to make the end more terrible the rope broke and his body burst and
his very bowels gushed forth. Oh, if it be true that the _way_ of the
transgressor is hard, in the name of God what shall we say of the end?
Third: I would like to imagine another picture. What if instead of
going out to the scene of his disgraceful death he had waited until
after Jesus had risen? What if he had tarried behind some one of those
great trees near the city along the way which he should walk, or,
possibly on the Emmaus way? What if he had hidden behind some great
rock and simply waited? While it is true that he must have trembled as
he waited, what if after it all he had simply thrown himself on the
mercy of Jesus and had said to him, "Master, I have from the first been
untrue; for thirty pieces of silver I sold thee and with these lips I
betrayed thee with a kiss; but Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
upon me"? There would have been written in the New Testament
Scriptures the most beautiful story that the inspired book contains.
Nothing could have been so wonderful as the spirit of him who is able
to save to the uttermost, and who never turned away from any seeking
sinner, and he would, I am sure, have taken Judas in his very arms; he,
too, might have given him a kiss, not of betrayal, but of the sign of
his complete forgiveness, and Judas might have shone to-day in the city
of God as shines Joseph of Arimathaea, Paul the Apostle, Peter the
Preacher.
The saddest story I know is the story of Judas, for it is the account
of a man who resisted the grace of God and must regret it through
eternity.